Friday Baking

Last Friday I ended up with some unexpected free time. The weather was fairly unpleasant, so I headed to the store for three items: butter, sugar, and cream cheese. I used to avoid butter, but these days I'm a butter evangelist. We've all got to believe in something, eh? 

With my loot I baked two things: cookies and cupcakes. My "relaxing afternoon," resulted in a sugary weekend, but we both made it to Monday sans diabetes. Victory.

First up are the cookies....

I have made these cookies several times, and they are top notch. Plus the recipe only uses one stick of butter, so they are practically health food. I realized we had no brown sugar after I made my trip to the store, so I ended up just adding half a tablespoon of molasses (as brown sugar is just sugar + molasses). The molasses made these cookies even better than usual.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies  (adapted from this recipe)

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 T molasses

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups oatmeal

AT LEAST 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat Oven to 325°  F

Cream together butter, sugar and molasses with a stand mixer (paddle attachment), or with a hand mixer. Add vanilla and egg, and mix. Add all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, oatmeal, salt) and stir together until dough comes together. Do not over mix!  Mix in chocolate chips, and then drop large spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes! 

Now for the cupcakes...

All week I'd wanted carrot cake. I'm not sure if it is normal to want cake for so long, but by Friday I decided to go ahead and eat some damn carrot cake. However, I decided the carrot cake must be homemade, which prompted my afternoon of baking.

I started with a recipe from All Recipes, and then reduced the sugar, upped the carrots, added some whole wheat flour, doubled the cinnamon, added nutmeg, etc. I failed to record any of this, so all I can do is show off my nice looking cupcakes. To make the frosting I used the whisk attachment on my mixer and combined 8 oz of cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, and all the powdered sugar I could find in the cabinet (maybe a about half a cup). 

Yum.

And don't worry Mother, if you are concerned about my blood sugar levels you should know that on Sunday I gave away no less than seven cupcakes. I think that cancels everything else out. 

How to Make Tortillas

I had a request for a tortilla-making post! Here you go Brissie!

Corn tortillas are surprisingly easy and economical to make yourself. Last night I made tortillas for 3 for about $1. This benefit aside, homemade tortillas are soft, warm, and preservative free. You need 3 ingredients for tortillas:

• Corn Flour (which often goes by its Spanish name, masa harina, at the store) 
• Water
• A little bit of salt (a bit less than a teaspoon).

Pretty darn easy. Here are my dry ingredients ready to go...

To make tortillas for two people (with very healthy appetites)  I use 1 3/4 cup corn flour and 1 1/8 cup water. Last night, I adjusted this ratio for 3 people. I'd be embarrassed to explain how I calculated the changes, as I am certain most everyone I know would find a better way to do the math than I did (there was a drawing involved).

Once the water, salt and, flour are all in your bowl start mashing away with a fork. After the dough begins to come together hand knead it until smooth. Ultimately you want a soft (not sticky) ball of dough. If you need to add a little extra water or flour to achieve this, then go for it.

Your ball should look like this...

Let the ball solidify for about 5 minutes, and then slice it into smaller sections.  Use the sections to make small dough balls that will become individual tortillas (usually about 6-8 per normal recipe).

Take one of the dough balls and squish it flat on a piece of wax paper.  Cover it with another piece of wax paper and roll out the dough out from the middle. The wax paper is essential. If you try to roll your dough without the paper, then you will end up with a serious corn mess. Take my word for it.

My tortillas usually end up looking a little misshapen. I think this one looks like the state of Alaska, but it still makes a great taco.

Next, carefully peel the tortilla off the paper and drop it into a greased pan on medium heat. Let the tortilla cook for about 45 seconds on each side, and then place somewhere warm. I usually turn the oven on to 170 degrees and keep the tortillas covered with a towel until they are all ready to go.

Buen provecho. :)

Blackberry Pie

My first pie! Blackberries are bountiful pretty much everywhere right now, and we have taken full advantage of the free, plentiful, delicious food. 

My first foray into the science of pie baking went pretty well (probably thanks to the all butter crust). I used this crust recipe, and based the filling loosely on this recipe. 

I learned a few things about pies in the process, like that the bottom crust of a pie needs a brush of egg to not get soggy (I backpedaled to this step after filling the pie-- not recommended), 

We ate some pie with vanilla ice cream about half an hour it came out of the oven. Though the pie later congealed nicely, breaking it open while still warm caused a lot of the liquids to release.  

Disappearing pie... 

Homemade Ketchup

All summer I've been regularly checking the .79/lb "bargain produce," bin for a whole bunch of tomatoes on their last legs. I finally got lucky, and purchased about 5 lbs of very ripe organic tomatoes for about $4. Right on. 

The tomatoes, a whole white onion, some garlic, a healthy dose of vinegar, various spices, and a bit of sugar got the Vita-mix (serious blender) treatment, and reduced via boil to about 1/2 the original volume. 

The result was a quite a bit of delicious ketchup. It definitely does not taste like store bought ketchup (which I now realize has a fairly supernatural consistency to it), but that is why we call it gangster farm ketchup. I've read that homemade ketchup should keep for up to 6 months in the fridge (thanks to the natural preserving qualities of vinegar)!

Homemade Pizza

A 16 inch pizza stone and a basil plant have vastly improved my home pizza making experience.  

Still to come? Growing some tomatoes and getting a milk goat. 

Maaaaaaa.

Cinnamon Rolls

One of my goals this summer has been to improve my yeast working skills and confidence (ah, ambition). I've mostly made bread, but wanted to branch out (well maybe I really just wanted to eat some cinnamon rolls). I didn't stray too far from my recipe, and ended up with delicious whole wheat cinnamon rolls.

Sweets don't last too long at the homestead, and these puppies were gone in about two days. Definitely worth the sugar rush.